Readers
Letters to the Editor
Fed funds could avert homelessness, worse
A special thank you to AARP’s Lupe Solis for her letter (Saturday, “Rejecting stimulus money inconceivable”).
For the past eight years, like some 60,000 other Arizona seniors, my husband and I have been grandparents raising grandchildren.
We save the state approximately $5,000 a month by keeping our grandchildren out of foster care.
In doing so, we have provided these children with stability, a sense of family and support for their ethnicity and religion.
In foster care, they would have been separated from one another, moved from home to home until age 18 and then dumped on the streets.
Sixty-nine percent of inmates have a history of state institutional and foster care.
These children also suffer from severe post-traumatic stress disorder.
In spite of this, Arizona is going to cut services that keep abused and abandoned children out of foster care.
Arizona is now cutting senior benefits as well. With such cuts, we’re going to be lucky to live long enough to provide for the children in our care.
We saved the state some $480,000 in foster care costs and these children from paying the life-damaging price of being abandoned.
Now the state has abandoned all of us.
In today’s economy, seniors can’t get jobs because of the numbers of young people seeking work and businesses not being able to afford health coverage.
Now some legislators want to grandstand by refusing federal funding, damning the rest of us to homelessness, even death.
Lesley Wimberly
Getting the word out to save the newspaper
When the news broke that my favorite evening paper was to stop publishing, I was heartbroken! Where will I get my comics fix?
I know, the morning paper, but not all that the Citizen prints. Also the various commentary plus many features only the Citizen carries.
The thought occurred: Save the paper. But how? Money, take the paper private, money. MONEY!
Well. I could donate to a (Save the Paper) fund, and if a large group also donated, then maybe the Tucson Citizen could continue its long history.
How much can I afford? One thousand dollars seemed like a good starting place. After all, if only 1,000 persons each donating $1,000, it would equal $1 million. This seemed like a doable amount and should help.
Little did I know. Upon discussing it with one of the editors, I find that $1 million is about one-quarter of the annual costs.
And the present owner is taking the financial agreement with the morning paper with them.
Never fear, it would only take 5,000 people donating $1,000 each to maybe allow the Tucson Citizen to continue publishing.
Interested? Call, e-mail, walk in or somehow let them know. Please, this is possible.
Orval Nemitz
retired Air Force
Bola, CDO send reader into state of discontent
The Associated Press article about the nickname for Arizona said the state tie is the “bolo” tie.
The AP and the Citizen editor should have checked (or known): It is the bola tie. It is in the state constitution.
I also thought that the article about Lute on the front page could have been a little smaller and the “CDO girls take state” could have been on the first page. It is good news isn’t it? Great job, girls!
Jim Nierenberg
Meghanlomania? Love life isn’t big news
Re: From our Blogs Thursday (“Meghan McCain’t get a date”):
With our economy in dire straits, a two-front war, homes being foreclosed on, why should we give a darn whether Meghan McCain can get a date? If this is news, then we are in worse shape than I thought.
Tom Kerby
Global warming draws more heated debate
Sorry, Mr. Grijalva. Your talk about global warming is pure basura (trash).
You want us to not be dependent on oil? Or is it foreign oil? We have plenty of oil, but your party won’t let us drill for it.
You talk about pollution in this country? Try talking to the Chinese, whose pollution drifts across the globe from their mines and factories! Closer to home, how about those copper smelters just across the border whose owners don’t think they need filters on smokestacks?
Al Gore’s fairy tale global warming would be nice if it were true, but those folks back East are shoveling snow. It’s a bit difficult to hold protests about global warming in the middle of a blizzard.
As a matter of fact, we are in a “global cooling cycle.”
You want wind farms and solar panels? They cannot supply a fraction of the energy that is needed to run this country! Yes, as you say, we are at a crossroads, and your party is determined to take the wrong fork in the road no matter what it costs us!
Instead of going forward with Obama, you are intent on going backward as fast as you can! Your statistics are as phony as a $3 bill, a product of your imagination.
You have managed to saddle future generations with debt to pay for your out-of-control spending. Save your brave new world for the gullible.
John F. Sukey
retired military